After Effects News Roundup
3D models in AE, 3D camera tracking, ray-tracer, performance, scripting, DCP, and more
By Rich Young | July 02, 2012

Here's the latest 2 weeks or so of assorted After Effects tutorials, tips, and scripts & plug-ins new and old.
Lester Banks took a First Look at AtomKraft 3D Environment for After Effects with a set of movies along with text that explain many of the features of this forthcoming comp renderer. Here's just a small portion of Lester's review:
Video Copilot's Element 3D has a Release Date that's nearly the same times as AtomKraft's, and both seem like a big bonus for users. Element is a 3D object-based plug-in that's also a particle array animation system with extrude and bevel features. [update: check out the July 5 preview video from Andrew Kramer]
Four new tutorials on 3D camera tracking in AE appeared. Here's a few others first:
- Brian Maffitt also posted an intro video
- Studying 3D Camera Tracker, Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka maltaannon)
- Todd Kopriva has advice on memory and storage tips for Warp Stabilizer and 3D Camera Tracker (it appears that data for the CS6 3D Camera Tracker is stored along with the effect in the project file).
- 3D tracking and 3D text in After Effects CS6 by Mattrunks
- CS6 After Effects camera tracker and C4D workflow in 3 parts by Ronn Trevino
- The Dark Alley - Video Tutorial by Cassidy Bisher
- Tutorial: After Effects CS6 3D Camera Tracker by Jon Carr (embedded below)
VinhSon Nguyen shared his method for Building An iPhone In After Effects, which evoked some good comments. He also posted Bonus Video: Building a 3D iPhone Completely in After Effects Part 2:
Using and creating After Effects scripts from AE Portal shares some learning and script resources, including the release of a new After Effects Scripting Guide (details at scripting changes in After Effects CS6, plus new scripting guide).Todd Kopriva also noted that you can do more than just Opt/Alt+drag to replace a Comp layer:
"To replace all uses of selected footage items with another footage item, select footage items in the Project panel, and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto a selected footage item in the Project panel."
Kevin Snyder posted a project file for CS5.5-6 using Trapcode Particular to create grass blowing in the wind. "The grass is looping, so you can have it animate as long as you would like." This follows Andrew Kramer's bonus jungle scene that used CC Hair effects to create some overgrown bits of grass on 3D text. Earlier Harry Frank posted Particular Grass, a free AE project file. Here's the preview from Kevin:
AE Map from AE Scripts was updated and added AEMap Utilities, for dealing with a layer issues and nested comps:
Subblue's unique Pixel Benders aren't supported in AE CS6, but Nabscripts posted his port of Subblue's Guilloch© Patterns on the MotionBoutique blog, in Create Guilloch© Mask in After Effects using a simple script. Vaguely similar stuff can be found in A few spirographs in After Effects. Here's how to make a Guilloch© pattern in Illustrator:
Let's Give CC Page Turn Another⦠Turn by Adam Everett Miller appeared on AEtuts, and as After Effects A-Z: CC Page Turn on Motionsworks. Other examples of CC Page Turn include a fuzzy Paper Rip Effect in After Effects from Michael Szabo and Splice Together A Quick Filmstrip Animation from Fabio Cunha. Here's Adam's preview:
Creating a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) with AE also appeared to be of interest lately, with a thread on the AE-List, Digital Cinema Package Tutorial by Matt Cameron, and Getting to grips with making a Digital Cinema Package by Danny Lacey. [update: see the comments in Need to Project in a Digital Theater? Make a Digital Cinema Package for Cheap with OpenDCP by Joe Marine]
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